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'And I say, Hey! HEY!' Aardvark Arthur's wonderful new days are ending

时间:2022-08-12 06:06来源:互联网 提供网友:nan   字体: [ ]
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'And I say, Hey! HEY!' Aardvark Arthur's wonderful new days are ending

Transcript1

The PBS Kids' TV show Arthur begins its 25th and final season this week. Produced by WGBH, the aardvark (yes, he's an aardvark) will live on in reruns, digital shorts and a podcast — but no new episodes are planned.

Shown in 80 countries, Arthur has won seven Emmy Awards and a Peabody. The books by Marc Brown that inspired the series have sold nearly 70 million copies since the first edition was published in 1976.

To mark the end of an era, Brown looks back on Arthur's legacy2 in the new book, Believe In Yourself: What We Learned from Arthur.

With his big round glasses, little ears and two dashes for a nose, Arthur looks more like a bespectacled mouse than an aardvark. But he didn't start out that way. In fact, Brown's original drawings of Arthur are more anatomically correct. On the cover of the very first book, Arthur's Nose, he's got a long snout and he doesn't look happy about it.

"I think sometimes that I was rescued by Arthur," Brown says.

In 1976, he was out of a job. "Arthur had a problem with his nose and I had a problem in my life," he recalls. The small Boston college where he was teaching announced it was closing. One night soon after, his son asked him for a bedtime story. Brown asked him what it should be about. His son replied, "a weird3 animal."

"I don't know why, I must have been thinking alphabetically4 because aardvarks popped into my head and then he wanted to know his name," Brown says. Thinking alliteratively, Arthur the aardvark was born. Then his son asked him to draw him a picture, "and the thing that stood out for me about aardvarks was their nose ... So this story became about his nose being a problem."

So much of a problem that Arthur considers getting a nose job:

"Arthur tried on all kinds of noses.

Chicken.

Fish.

Elephant

Koala bear."

Marc Brown thought he had a good story on his hands. His publisher did, too. Arthur's Nose was followed by Arthur's Eyes, Arthur's Valentine and 18 more books before the tales launched a TV show — 20 years later.

With its infectious opening theme song, Believe In Yourself, written by Judy Henderson and Jerry DeVilliers Jr. and performed by Ziggy Marley & The Melody Makers5, Arthur made its debut6 on PBS on Oct. 7, 1996.

True to Brown's vision, the menagerie of kids in Elwood City — third-grader Arthur, his often ruthless little sister D.W., Buster, Binky, Francine and the rest quarrel, tease, get in trouble, and fear what they don't understand.

"Our kids are not perfect on Arthur because kids in the world aren't perfect," says Carol Greenwald, who's been the executive producer of the TV series from the beginning. "If they can see other kids on the screen making mistakes and going the wrong way, but then kind of figuring it out and working it out, it's really helpful."

Diverse characters and experiences have been a constant on Arthur. In the first episode, Arthur's Eyes, the titular7 mammal learns he needs glasses. Francine calls him "four eyes." The other kids laugh, except for Buster. "Some people need glasses to see, Francine. Big deal," he tells her.

For Greenwald, the reaction to Arthur's Eyes was a revelation. "Quickly after it aired, I started getting mail from kids who were blind, saying it's so meaningful for us to see a show about someone wearing glasses," Greenwald remembers. "And I was like, 'Oh my gosh, I mean, if we can reach these kids by just showing somebody wearing glasses, imagine if we had a blind character.' So we created a blind character." Her name is Marina and, through her friendship with Prunella, young viewers learn what it's like to navigate8 the world with vision loss.

Arthur's writers and producers introduced Carl, a character on the autism spectrum9. Binky has food allergies10. George has dyslexia. When Buster learned he has asthma11, a then-6-year-old viewer named Katerina Daley took notice. "Growing up as a kid with asthma, I had never seen anyone on TV like me in that way before," Daley says.

Today, Daley is a list writer for the website ScreenRant. She also works for The Arc, a nonprofit that helps people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. "I jokingly refer to myself as a disability advocate since kindergarten," she says. Daley combined her interests in the ScreenRant listicle 10 Things From PBS' Arthur That Were Way Ahead of Their Time.

When asked why she became a die-hard Arthur fan, Daley rattles12 off a long list.

"I loved the characters. I loved the friendship between Arthur and Buster. I loved D.W., the snarky little sister ... I loved seeing parts of myself in all the characters," Daley continues, "I loved how diverse all of the characters were, how every personality was totally different, how every family was different, how everything was all about being yourself and believing in yourself."

But all that diversity has not been universally embraced. In 2019, Alabama Public Television refused to air an episode featuring a same-sex wedding between Arthur's teacher, Mr. Ratburn, and his partner, Patrick. In 2005, funding for the spinoff Postcards from Buster was jeopardized13 when the titular rabbit met families in Vermont with two moms. At the time, Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings wrote a letter to PBS head Pat Mitchell reminding her that the show received funding from the Department of Education. She added, "Many parents would not want their young children exposed to the life-styles portrayed14 in this episode."

Today, Spellings acknowledges, times have changed. In a statement to NPR, she writes: "The world is very different today. Every level of government — and every form of media — now reflects a greater openness to the multi-faceted, diverse stories that Americans can tell about themselves, their lives, and the country we share."

Telling children the truth "is the most important thing we've done," says Marc Brown, referring to the hundreds of writers, animators, producers and others who've brought Arthur to life over the decades.

"We, as adults, owe children the truth," Brown says. "They're trying to make a foundation on which they can build their lives, and if there isn't truth in that foundation, things get pretty shaky."

As the last line in Brown's very first book put it more than 45 years ago: "There's a lot more to Arthur than his nose."


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 transcript JgpzUp     
n.抄本,誊本,副本,肄业证书
参考例句:
  • A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
  • They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。
2 legacy 59YzD     
n.遗产,遗赠;先人(或过去)留下的东西
参考例句:
  • They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
  • He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。
3 weird bghw8     
adj.古怪的,离奇的;怪诞的,神秘而可怕的
参考例句:
  • From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来,他好像有点怪。
  • His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。
4 alphabetically xzzz0q     
adv.照字母顺序排列地
参考例句:
  • I've arranged the books alphabetically so don't muddle them up. 我已按字母顺序把这些书整理了,千万不要再弄乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They are all filed alphabetically under author. 这些都是按照作者姓名的字母顺序归档的。 来自辞典例句
5 makers 22a4efff03ac42c1785d09a48313d352     
n.制造者,制造商(maker的复数形式)
参考例句:
  • The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
  • The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 debut IxGxy     
n.首次演出,初次露面
参考例句:
  • That same year he made his Broadway debut, playing a suave radio journalist.在那同一年里,他初次在百老汇登台,扮演一个温文而雅的电台记者。
  • The actress made her debut in the new comedy.这位演员在那出新喜剧中首次登台演出。
7 titular wonwV     
adj.名义上的,有名无实的;n.只有名义(或头衔)的人
参考例句:
  • The Queen is titular head of the Church of England.英国女王是英国国教名义上的领袖。
  • He is titular head,and merely signs laws occasionally.他是名义上的首脑,不过偶尔签字批准法律法规。
8 navigate 4Gyxu     
v.航行,飞行;导航,领航
参考例句:
  • He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
  • Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。
9 spectrum Trhy6     
n.谱,光谱,频谱;范围,幅度,系列
参考例句:
  • This is a kind of atomic spectrum.这是一种原子光谱。
  • We have known much of the constitution of the solar spectrum.关于太阳光谱的构成,我们已了解不少。
10 allergies 2c527dd68e63f119442f4352f2a0b950     
n.[医]过敏症;[口]厌恶,反感;(对食物、花粉、虫咬等的)过敏症( allergy的名词复数 );变态反应,变应性
参考例句:
  • Food allergies can result in an enormous variety of different symptoms. 食物过敏会引发很多不同的症状。 来自辞典例句
  • Let us, however, examine one of the most common allergies; hayfever. 现在让我们来看看最常见的变态反应的一种--枯草热。 来自辞典例句
11 asthma WvezQ     
n.气喘病,哮喘病
参考例句:
  • I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
  • Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。
12 rattles 0cd5b6f81d3b50c9ffb3ddb2eaaa027b     
(使)发出格格的响声, (使)作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 ); 喋喋不休地说话; 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动,堕下或走动; 使紧张,使恐惧
参考例句:
  • It rattles the windowpane and sends the dog scratching to get under the bed. 它把窗玻璃震得格格作响,把狗吓得往床底下钻。
  • How thin it is, and how dainty and frail; and how it rattles. 你看它够多么薄,多么精致,多么不结实;还老那么哗楞哗楞地响。
13 jeopardized accbc5f810050021e69367411f107008     
危及,损害( jeopardize的过去式和过去分词 )
参考例句:
  • The soldier jeopardized his life to save his comrade. 这个士兵冒生命的危险救他的同志。
  • The occasional failed project or neglected opportunity does not jeopardized overall progress. 偶然失败的项目或失误的机会并没有影响总的进展。
14 portrayed a75f5b1487928c9f7f165b2773c13036     
v.画像( portray的过去式和过去分词 );描述;描绘;描画
参考例句:
  • Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim. 在审讯过程中,他始终把自己说成是受害者。
  • The author portrayed his father as a vicious drunkard. 作者把他父亲描绘成一个可恶的酒鬼。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
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